


We May Look Easy Pickings

by LetsJustWrite



Series: Families Are Built, Not Broken [4]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Adoption, Alexithymia, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Foster Care, Gen, POV Azelma Thénardier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 21:44:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16962045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LetsJustWrite/pseuds/LetsJustWrite
Summary: Eponine picks Azelma up from her parents house and she lets her, lets her drive them to Eponine's house, and give her a room and dinner, and she lets it happen, and even though it was supposed to be good, she isn't sure she feels anything about it anymore.





	We May Look Easy Pickings

The house is big. It’s almost bigger than Emelie’s house, who has a jacuzzi her backyard, and parents who are never home to see them drink all the alcohol in the cabinets.

Here there’s no jacuzzi, just a half-gardened yard with a bench she can see from the window in the room Eponine had given her. She can see Cosette and Valjean in the yard, talking, and they don’t look up when she opens the window to hear them better.

They’re not saying anything interesting, though, just talking about what they’ll have for dinner and Azelma moves to the desk, leaving the window open to catch it if they do start saying something she needs to hear.

The desk is white, with drawers, like the bed and the dresser. When she opens a drawer she finds a note with a smiley on it, signed _Cosette_. She looks at it for a while, starts to throw it in the garbage, then changes her mind and sticks it back in the drawer.

The walls of the room are mauve and light purple and the bedsheets are mauve too. Eponine had remembered that those were her favorite colors. She doesn’t know why that makes her want to ruin them.

Sometime later someone knocks on the door. She jumps, but then Eponine speaks. “Zel, we’re having dinner.”

She waits on the stairs while Eponine goes to convince Gavroche to come down to eat. She could guess why he didn’t want to come down, but in her opinion food was worth any amount of pain. Besides, she was pretty sure no one would hurt them with Eponine there. Both Marius and Valjean seemed to respect her and she was old enough to realize respect could be more important than physical strength.

Of course, the minute they sit down Gavroche starts asking a ton of questions. It doesn’t matter to him where he is or what’s going on, he can never shut up. Azelma gulps down her food and leaves before they get in trouble.

She locks hers door but when she hears everyone go to bed she unlocks it. She’s scared of fires. Gavroche would probably say that that’s stupid but she doesn’t care. She’ll lock it again in the morning.

Her bed is soft and she can’t fall asleep. She thinks of her parents and her home and her friends and sometime in the night she starts crying and she doesn’t know why.

Gavroche comes in then and throws food at her, and she glares at him, but really she’s relieved, because this is something that is normal-Gavroche sneaking them food in the middle of the night and she wants normal. She trusts normal, even if it means getting beat up by her father and sent on illegal errands by her mother. Normal is good.


End file.
